Tag Archives: Waste management

01.30.10
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A composter full of waste complaints

city_scope_logo-cmyk
Proof this city has a green composter full of waste management issues lies not just in last week’s Times-Journal article on our dismal rate of diversion, for deep within a report coming to council on Monday lurks another disturbing figure.

Front and centre at the council meeting will be waste management coordinator Michelle Shannon, who is charged with improving the city’s diversion rate of recyclables and organic waste.

The good new is our diversion rate has inched up to 43% in 2009, from the previous 39.6% reported in the T-J story, but that’s well below the provincial target of 60%.

Immediately following this diversion data is the revelation city staff logged over 400 complaints last year dealing with waste management issues.
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10.24.09
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Elgin trucking firm set to take on T.0.

ECL

A transport company that says Toronto is blowing $25 million by rejecting its bid to haul garbage is taking out ads to persuade councillors to accept what it’s offering.

The newspaper and radio ads will run Monday, the first day of a two-day session at which council will decide on awarding a 10-year contract to truck waste to the Green Lane landfill near St. Thomas, Ont.

The works committee has recommended awarding the contract to Verspeeten Cartage Ltd., which bid $132 million. That was after city staff had disqualified a bid from ECL Carriers, which said it could do the job for $107 million.

Gregory Rumble, who heads ECL’s parent company, Contrans Income Fund, says his firm should not have been rejected. “We feel we have been disqualified unfairly and it’s going to cost the taxpayers of the City of Toronto $25 million over the next 10 years. That’s a lot of money to be thrown to the side.”
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04.08.09
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Trash, trains and Talbotville

Ian McCallum

Ian McCallum


Posted by Ian:
One year ago, on May 17, in the St. Thomas Times-Journal, I dedicated a considerable portion of my weekly City Scope column to an interesting speculative exercise. I am reprising that column, and a follow-up response from a key City of Toronto manager, in the belief there are new developments with the property in question located south of Talbotville. Here is the initial observation …

Three intriguing tales of trash, trains and Talbotville have entwined themselves over the past month to the point you would swear they spawned from the same source.
Follow carefully as City Scope sifts through the facts for a common thread.
As reported in yesterday’s T-J, the Green Lane Environmental Group, owned in part by Bob McCaig, sold its waste collection, recycling and materials recovery business to BFI Canada Inc., in a move effective May 1.
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03.31.09
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Economic meltdown killing recycling

Posted by Ian:

St. Thomas has more than its share of waste management issues since BFI Canada took over the contract from Green Lane Environmental one year ago. Not the least of which is a strict adherance to how much in the way of recyclables are picked up each week in blue boxes and green composters. As a result the city’s diversion rate from landfill is dropping. Is this a forerunner of things to come during tough economic times as documented in The Business Insider?

Jay Yarow|Mar. 12, 2009, 9:21 AM|comment

The global economic meltdown and a shift in commodity prices are killing the market for recycled goods. A ton of copper scrap now sells for $3,000, down from more than $8,000 in 2007, tin now sells for $5 a pound, down from $300. Paper is down 80%, reports the New York Times. The prices of plastic bottles have fallen off a cliff too.

Recycling plants in the United States and China are facing massive losses. SA Recycling in the United States took a $10 million loss. China which imports more trash than anywhere in the world is now accepting less because it doesn’t make as much money from trash now. The result is that fewer items will be recycled, and more municipalities will cut back back on recycling programs once they start losing money on them.